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REPORT OF COMMITTEE 

CHARGED WITH 

Placing the Memorial 

TO MARK 
THE BIRTHPLACE OF 

GEORGE BANCROFT 

America's Foremost Historian, 

Secretary of the Navy, Founder of 
THE U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
U.S. Minister to England and to Prussia. 

With Brief Account of the Formal 
Exercises. 

October 3, 1900. 

Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, October, 1900. 

Worcester, Massachusetts. 



THE BANCROFT MEMORIAL. 



The Worcester Society of Antiquity, desiring to mark 
with an enduring tablet the site of the birthplace of George 
Bancroft, the eminent historian, issued invitations to the 
local historical and patriotic organizations, requesting their 
presence Tuesday evening, Sept. 4, 1900, for discus- 
sion of the same. There was a cordial response, and co- 
operation was assured. 

It was unanimously voted to place a memorial. 
A committee was appointed and given authority to act in 
all matters pertaining thereto, including the selection of the 
proper site; the selection of the memorial and its inscrip- 
tion ; the devising of ways for raising money, and the out- 
lining of appropriate exercises and arrangements for Oct. 
3, 1900, the centenary of Mr. Bancroft's birth. 

The committee and the or^ai^izations represented were 
as follows : 

American Antiquarian Society : 

Hon. Stephen Salisbury. 

Mr. Nathaniel Paine. 
Worcester Society of Antiquity: 

Hon. Ellery B. Crane. 

Major F. G. Stiles. 
Daughters of the American Revolution : 

Mrs. Caroline Van Deusen Chenoweth. 

Mrs. Daniel Kent. 
Daughters of the Revolution : 

Miss Catherine M. Bent. 

Mrs. Herbert T. Harlow. 
Sons of the Revolution : 

Mr. Samuel S. Green. 

Rev. Charles L. Short. 
Sons of the American Revolution : 

In BxchangQ 
Amer. Ant. Soc. 
26 Jl 1907 



The Bancroft Memorial. 3 

Hon. Alfred S. Roe. 

Charles T. Tatman, Esq. 
Grand Army of the Republic: 

Mr. Stephen C. Earle. 

Mr. James B. Stone. 
This committee, with the exception of Miss Bent, Messrs. 
Earle, Stone and Tatman, were present, and at the close 
of the meeting organized, with Mr. Roe as chairman ; Mrs. 
Kent, secretary; Mr. Paine, treasurer, and adjourned to the 
afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 5, at five o'clock, to meet at 
the office of Mr. Green in the Public Library. 



At the adjourned meeting there were present Messrs. 
Roe, Crane, Paine, Stiles. Earle, Short, Green, Salisbury, 
Mrs. Chenoweth, Mrs. Kent, Mrs. Harlow, 

It was voted that the memorial should consist of a bronze 
tablet, upon a foundation of rough stone of suitable size, 
quarried in Worcester. 

That the selection and dimensions of this stone be left to 
a committee of two, consisting of Messrs. Earle and 
Green. 

That the name of Chandler be introduced, in parentheses, 
in the inscription, it being the maiden name of Mr. Ban- 
croft's mother, and that the inscription read : "Son of Aaron 
and Lucretia (Chandler) Bancroft." 

That the word Placed be substituted for the word erected 
and that the inscription read : '^Placed by citizens of Wor- 
cester Oct. 3, 1900." 

That the word stone be substituted for the word spot, and 
that the inscription read : "Twenty feet east of this stone." 

That the selection and dimensions of the tablet be left to 
the Stone and Tablet Committee. 

That a Finance Committee be appointed consisting 
of Messrs. Paine, Salisbury and Crane; that it be em- 



4 TJie Bancroft Memorial. 

powered to receive and disburse all funds raised towards 
the memorial. 

That a Committee on Celebration be appointed which 
shall plan and have charge of the details of the day and the 
manner of celebrating the same. This committee shall have 
power to increase its numbers. 

This committee to consist of six members originally : Mr. 
Roe, Mrs. Chenoweth, Mrs. Kent, Miss Bent, Major Stiles 
and Mr. Short. 

That the selection of the site and placing of stone also be 
left to the Stone and Tablet Committee. 



A meeting was held Sept. 8 to listen to the report of the 
Stone and Tablet Committee. Present: Messrs. Roe, 
Crane, Stiles, Short, Earle, Salisbury, Green, Mrs. Cheno- 
weth, Mrs. Kent, Miss Bent. 

This sub-committee recommended that the tablet be of 
bronze, in the form of an ellipse; its dimensions 22x18 
inches, and called attention to the fact that this oval form 
was a favorite of colonial days, and therefore particularly 
appropriate. They reported the submitting of their de- 
sign to several firms and named the various bids received. 
That of Mr. George P. Tilton, Newburyport, Mass., was 
selected, and the recommendations of the committee were 
adopted. 

This Stone and Tablet Committee also recommended the 
use of stone from south ledge, situated in the southeasterly 
part of Worcester, and that in form it should be a truncated 
pyramid, both of which recommendations were adopted, 
and the committee empowered to provide the same. 

It was the general sentiment of the committee of the 
whole that as the local historical and patriotic organizations 
were equally interested in the movement, it would be de- 
sirable for them to join in defraying the expenses attending 



TJic Bancroft Memorial. 5 

the same, and each of the societies represented upon the 
committee cheerfully contributed its share of the expense. 



Sept. 10 a meeting of the Committee on Celebration was 
held at the residence of Mrs. Daniel Kent, at which the 
order of exercises for Oct. 3 was adopted. It was also 
voted to extend invitations to Senator George F. Hoar, 
General James Grant Wilson, Rev. Dr. Edward Everett 
Hale, Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson, U. S. N., and 
Andrew McFarland Davis to be present, and that Senator 
Hoar, Dr. Hale and General Wilson be invited to speak; 
also that His Honor Mayor Dodge be asked to attend and 
formally receive the memorial into the city's keeping. 

That a souvenir of the occasion be prepared for general 
distribution, containing a portrait of Mr. Bancroft, with 
pictures of the memorial and the Bancroft house, and that 
Benjamin T. Hill, Esq., Charles T. Tatman, Esq., Eben 
Francis Thompson, Esq., be invited to act as ushers. 

Oct. 5th the Bancroft Memorial Committee met at the of- 
fice of Mr. Green, Public Library building, and voted as 
follows : 

That the plates prepared and used by the committee in 
connection with the memorial be placed in the keeping of 
the American Antiquarian Society. 

That a complete account of the celebration, together with 
a report of the secretary of this committee, be published 
in the Proceedings of the Worcester Society of Antiquity. 

That Mr. Crane, Mr. Paine and Mrs. Kent constitute a 
committee to arrange the material for publication. 

The treasurer's report was read and approved. 

GEORGIA TYLER KENT, 

Secretary for the Committee. 



6 TJie Bancroft Memorial. 

FORMAL EXERCISES OF PLACING THE MEMO- 
RIAL, AND ITS ACCEPTANCE BY HIS HONOR 
MAYOR RUFUS B. DODGE, JR. 

The memorial stone, with bronze tablet, marking the 
birthplace of George Bancroft on Salisbury street, was ded- 
icated and transferred to the city at 3 P. M. Oct. 3, 1900, 
with appropriate ceremonies. 

The fact that the day marked the centennial of the histo- 
rian's birth added interest to the event. 

The committee from the historical and patriotic societies 
of Worcester, under whose auspices the memorial was erect- 
ed, had as guest of honor Rear-Admiral William T. Samp- 
son. The venerable Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale of Bos- 
ton and Gen. James Grant Wilson of New York made the 
chief addresses. Mr. Andrew McFarland Davis of Cam- 
bridge, Mass., was present, representing the family of the 
historian. 

Those having charge of the exercises feared in the morn- 
ing that it would be necessary to hold them indoors, but 
toward noon the sun began to burn through the clouds, and 
when three o'clock came the weather was almost perfect. A 
delightful breeze just barely rippled the flags, and the sky 
was clear save for a few light clouds near the horizon. 

The stone, cut at the Ballard quarries, was already in 
place, and stands between the sidewalk and curbing, twenty 
feet west of the spot where the house was located in which 
the Bancrofts lived. Adjacent are the grounds belongmg 
to Fred P. Daniels, and the carriage drive leading to Mr. 
Daniels' house is but a short distance to the westward. The 
land swelling slightly on the north formed a very good van- 
tage ground for the audience while the exercises were in 
progress. 

In shape the memorial is a truncated pyramid, though it 
tapers so slightly as to appear almost square, and may be 




BIRTHPLACE OF GEORGE BAN'CROFT. 



TWENTY FEET 
' EAST OF THIS STONE " 
STQOO THE HOUSE IN WHICH 

GEORGE BANCROFT 

HISTORIAN OF AMERICA 

SON OF AARON AND LUCRETIA 

(Chandler) BANCROFT 

WAS BORN OCTOBER 3 1800 

"placed er' 

I. CITIZENS OF WORCESTER = 
OCTOBER 3 1900 







BANCROFT MEMORIAL STONE AND TABLET. 



The Bancroft Memorial. J 

said to be 2^ feet square. The color is grayish, streaked 
with darker shades. On the side facing the street an oval 
bronze tablet, 23 inches long by 18 niches wide at the 
broadest place, is inserted, bearing in raised letters of 
moderate size, and without punctuation marks, the follow- 
ing inscription : 

"Twenty feet east of this stone stood the house in which 
George Bancroft, historian of America, son of Aaron and 
T.ucrctia (Chandler) Bancroft, was born Oct. 3, 1800. 
Placed by citizens of Worcester Oct. 3, 1900. 

An American flag had been draped over the stone before 
the time for the dedication, and was suspended almost over 
it when the unveiling had taken place. 

By three o'clock between 1200 and 1500 persons had 
gathered to witness the ceremony. 

Hon. Ellery B. Crane, president of the Worcester Society 
of Antiquity, opened the exercises by introducing Hon. 
Stephen Salisbury president for the occasion. Mr. Crane 
said : 

"For a number of years the Worcester Society of An- 
tiquity has been planning to place some suitable monument 
to mark the birthplace of Worcester's noble son, Hon. Geo. 
Bancroft, the historian. A letter received a few weeks since 
from Miss Catherine M. Bent, suggesting observance of the 
looth anniversary of the historian's birth, led to the selec- 
tion of that day for the placing of the monument. Know- 
ing others were interested in the movement, invitations 
were given to various patriotic societies to meet with us 
and take part in furnishing and setting of the monument. 
They responded heartily. A committee was selected, rep- 
resenting the various organizations, with power to act. To 
the call of that committee we have met here to-day, and I 
take special pleasure in presenting Hon. Stephen Salisbury, 
president of the American Antiquarian Society, as president 
of the day. 



8 TJie Bancroft Memorial. 

MR. SALISBURY'S ADDRESS. 

"Ladies and Gentlemen : We are met together for an im- 
portant object, to give expression as residents of our be- 
loved city to our sentiments of respect and admiration for 
the life of one of our most distinguished citizens, and to 
emphasize the occasion by placing an enduring record in 
bronze, conspicuously indicating the birthplace of George 
Bancroft, the historian, statesman and diplomatist, who was 
born loo years ago to-day. Those lessons are best learned 
which are most frequently presented to the mind, and a 
landmark like the one we erect to-day will inspire in the 
minds of all, young and old, a desire to know the tracings 
of that life, and to imitate the methods by which so great re- 
sults were achieved as to make a public recognition seem 
most fitting to our whole community. 

"That George Bancroft became the man he was came 
naturally to him by descent, united to habits of industry and 
energy, for of his father, Rev. Dr. Aaron Bancroft, 
William Lincoln in his history of Worcester, in 
1836, says in his dedication : 'Except for his warm 
encouragement of the general design of this his- 
tory, without knowledge of the manner of its exe- 
cution, it would have perished. If there is any merit in the 
preservation of the facts it contains, it is yours ; the errors 
are those of the compiler. On the completion of the work 
his highest gratification is derived from the opportunity of 
expressing veneration for the character of his beloved pas- 
tor and gratification for the communications which rightly 
used would have given value to the volume now respectfully 
dedicated to you, who have contributed more than all others 
to perpetuate the memory of the events and men in past 
times.' 

"Certainly a great eulogy is contained in these lines of 
William Lincoln, the gifted writer, and keen satirist as well, 
as tradition tells us. 




GEORGE BANCROFT AT 54. 




REV. AARON BANCROFT. 



i. 



JJie Bancroft Memorial. 9 

"But it is not for me to occupy your time. We stand 
upon the site of the home of the Bancrofts, where 
George Bancroft was born and which he had planned 
to visit again and pass the 90th anniversary of his 
birth, but illness prevented. As appropriate to the oc- 
casion, I will ask the members of the senior class of the 
Classical and English high schools to sing 'Home, Sweet 
Home.' " 

At the close of Mr. Salisbury's address, the pupils of the 
senior classes at the high schools, under the direction of 
Seth Richards, sang "Home, Sweet Home," in which a 
number of the audience joined. Rev. Austin S. Garver, 
pastor of the First Unitarian Church, in which church 
the historian had listened to the teachings of his revered 
father in his early life, then offered prayer. 

At the end of the prayer, Mr. Salisbury introduced Rear- 
Admiral William T. Sampson in the following words : 

"It is a great gratification to the associations interested 
in this memorial that Rear-Admiral William T. Sampson is 
now present with us. His distinction as an officer and his 
great service to the country upon the sea of so recent date, 
make his tribute of respect to the memory of a former sec- 
retary of the navy and the founder of the Naval Academy 
at Annapolis most natural and impressive." 

Admiral Sampson stood amid rousing applause and 
bowed to either side in acknowledgment of his cordial re- 
ception. In a few words Mr. Salisbury expressed the 
regret felt at the necessary absence of Senator George F. 
Hoar, who had been called to New York. General James 
Grant Wilson of New York, one of the editors of the 
American Encyclopedia, a veteran of the Civil War and a 
great admirer of the historian, was introduced, who 
spoke as follows: 



lO TJie Bancroft Memorial . 

GENERAL WILSON'S ADDRESS. 

"The foremost American historians are generally ranked 
in the following order: Bancroft, Prescott and Motley, al- 
though Thomas Carlyle in conversation with your speaker 
claimed that to arrive at their proper standing their order 
should, in his judgment, be reversed. Said the Chelsea 
philosopher: 'I have read Prescott's and Bancroft's 
books once, but this,' pointing to an open volume on his 
library desk, 'is my second reading of Motley's "Dutch 
Republic" — a grand history.' A few weeks later, having 
presented a letter of introduction from Bancroft to Leopold 
Von Range, he remarked : T am happy to welcome to Ber- 
lin a friend of the greatest of American historians.' But 
whether George Bancroft's place is properly first or last 
among the Americans mentioned, we may all agree in be- 
lieving that he is rightfully entitled to the centennial honors 
paid to his memory by his native town. 

"It is a curious circumstance that the four leading Amer- 
ican historians should all have been natives of Massachu- 
setts — William H. Prescott (1796- 1859), George Bancroft 
(1800-1891), John Lathrop Motley (1814-1887), and Francis 
Parkman (1823-1893). Three of these writers inherited 
fortunes, while the fourth married a wealthy wife, so that 
they were all enabled to pursue their historical investiga- 
tions without the necessity of providing for the support of 
families by feeding them, as Douglas Jerrold jocularly de- 
scribed it, out of an inkstand ! 

"Bancroft was graduated from Harvard with honors at 
the early age of 17, winning during his course the particular 
favor and regard of President Kirkland, and three years 
later he received the degree of Ph. D. from the University 
of Gottingen. At this time he selected history as his special 
branch, naming as one of his reasons the desire to see if the 
observation of masses of men in action would not lead by 



The Bancroft Memorial. 1 1 

the inductive method to the estabhshment of the laws of 
morahty as a science. Removing to BerHn he became in- 
timate with Schleier, Savigny, Lappenberg, Alexander and 
William Von Humboldt and Van Ess, and at Jena he made 
the acquaintance of Goethe, who in conversation with the 
young American was enthusiastic in his praise of Lord By- 
ron, pronounced him 'the greatest of living poets; and 
expressing regret that he had never seen the new world, 
Bancroft studied at Heidelberg with the historian Schlosser, 
and in 1822 he returned to his native land, accepting for 
one year the position of tutor at Harvard. 

"Perhaps no better picture of Bancroft at the close of his 
student life could be presented than is contained in a note 
of introduction from the younger Humboldt to Pictel oi 
Geneva, which city the young American visited before re- 
turning to the United States : ' Je prends la liberte, men res- 
pectable ami et confrere, de vous recommander un jeune 
Americain qui a faite d'excellentes etudes de philologie et 
d'histoire philosophique en AUemagne. M. Bancroft est bien 
digne de vous voir de pres ; il est I'ami de mon frere et il 
appartient a cette noble race de jeunes Americains qui trou- 
vent que le vrai bonheur de I'homme dans la culture de 
I'intelligence.' 

"Twelve years later Bancroft published the first volume 
of his 'History of the United States,' and in 1S74 the tenth 
and concluding volume of his magnum opus appeared, the 
author during that period filling a place in President Polk's 
Cabinet, also later representing his country at the British 
and German courts. During the Franco-German War, 
while residing in Berlin, Bancroft celebrated the fiftieth an- 
niversary of his graduation at Gottingen, and in reply to 
congratulations from Bismarck, then in the field, he sent 
him a letter dated Sept. 30, 1870, saying : 

" 'I was equally surprised and dehghted that while you are 
tasked with the work of renovating Europe, you yet found 



12 Tlic Bancroft Memorial. 

time to send me lately a friendly congratulation on my 
being spared so long. It is indeed a great happiness to 
survive until these times, when three or four men who loved 
nothing so much as peace, and after long and hard service, 
were only seeking to close their career in tranquillity, win 
during a war of defence more military glory than the wild- 
est imagination conceived, and in three months bid fair to 
bring the German hope of a thousand years to its fulfill- 
ment. So I gratefully accept the good will conceded to my 
old age ; for old age, which is almost always nearest to eter- 
nity, is this year the mightiest on earth, this German War 
being conducted to its ends by the aged. You, to be sure, 
are young, but Roon must be classed among the vener- 
ables ; Moltke is within 23 days as old as I am, and your 
king in years and youthfulness excels us all. May I not be 
proud of my contemporaries? Retain for me your regard 
in the little time that remains for me.' 

"Before Bancroft's departure from Berlin he was over- 
whelmed with honors. The Royal Academy gave him a 
farewell dinner, and the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg 
and Munich united in a parting tribute signed by four score 
and ten professors. The document says : 'Your name is 
the intellectual possession of every one among us. You 
have contributed to the most complete understanding of 
the problems set for a free people in that, as one of the fore- 
most historians, you have portrayed those immortal deeds 
which led to the rise of a great free state beyond the sea and 
which will find in every age a response in the hearts of free- 
minded men. We feel a just pride that you may be remem- 
bered among those who most thoroughly appreciate Ger- 
man science. We can recall with satisfaction your name to 
prove that as the representative of the United States, you 
combined the spirit of true scientific procedure with the in- 
sight of a statesman.' 

"In a communication from Washington, when past four 



The Bancroft Memorial. 13 

score, the venerable historian writes : 'I have your valued 
letter and have made one or two corrections in the article 
about myself which you kindly sent me. There is one point 
which was further reaching than is mentioned in the article. 
Great Britain, you will remember, for a long period refused 
to concede that her emigrants, whether from Great Britain 
or Ireland, to the United States might throw off their alle- 
giance to their mother country and become citizens of the 
United States. The principle involved in this question was 
the one I had to discuss with the government of Prussia, 
and in a treaty obtained the formal recognition of the ex- 
patriation at the will of the individual emigrant. A certain 
degree of supremacy still attaching to several states, I nego- 
tiated with them all, one by one, a corresponding treaty. 
England watched the course of negotiations, resolving to 
conform to the principle which Count Bismarck might 
adopt for Prussia. It was this treaty with the German 
powers which in fact settled the question for Great Britain, 
who immediately gave up the claim to perpetual allegiance 
and accepted for its own dominions the principle which 
Prince Bismarck had accepted for Germany ; so that the 
treaty with Bismarck was in fact a settlement of the whole 
question with Great Britain.' 

"In another letter to your speaker Mr. Bancroft says : 
'Great Britain had raised a doubt as to the interpretation of 
the treaty settling the northwestern boundary of the 
United States. I, who had been a member of the Polk 
Cabinet when the treaty was framed, and who, as minister 
to England after the formation of the treaty, saw the first 
beginning of the attempt in England to change the line in a 
way very much to the interest of Great Britain, successfully 
prevented the progress of the attempt. Mr. Seward had 
with England agreed on Switzerland as an arbitrator, and 
had further agreed that the arbiter might make a compro- 
mise boundary. This was a kind of a confession that 



14 The Bancroft Memorial. 

would naturally lead the arbiter to a compromise decision 
which might grievously offend neither party. Soon after 
Mr. Seward's death I, who was then minister at Berlin, 
wrote to the government that where each party consented 
to a compromise, a compromise was pretty certain to be the 
decision of the arbiter ; and that if they would adhere strict- 
ly to the point that the arbiter should have nothing to do 
but to decide the meaning of the treaty, and would agree to 
the King of Prussia as the arbiter, I believed that Prussia 
would not be swayed by any family connections, but would 
certainly deliver a righteous verdict, and I recommended 
that that course be adopted. General Grant's cabinet, which 
followed Mr. Seward, never for themselves entertained the 
idea of a compromise, and they adopted my proposal of re- 
ferring the matter to the King of Prussia. The argument 
and the reply to the argument of Great Britain were written, 
every word of them, by myself.' 

"The settlement of the Oregon question, which brought 
us perilously near war with the mother country, was Mr. 
Bancroft's last public service. At the opening of the argu- 
ment submitted to the German emperor in December, 1871, 
he said : 'The treaty of which the interpretation is sub- 
mitted to your majesty's arbitration was ratified more than 
a quarter of a century ago. Of the sixteen members of the 
British Cabinet which framed and presented it for the ac- 
ceptance of the United States, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aber- 
deen and all the rest but one (Mr. Gladstone) are no more. 
The British minister at Washington who signed it is dead. 
Of American statesmen concerned in it, the minister at 
London, the president and vice-president, the secretary of 
state, and every one of the president's constitutional ad- 
visers except one have passed away. I alone remain, and 
after finishing the three score years and ten that are the 
days of our years, am selected by my country to uphold its 
rights.' Nine and twenty years have passed since these 



TJic Bancroft Memorial. 1 5 

pathetic words were spoken by the American minister. 
During that period he and the single survivor of Sir Robert 
Peel's Cabinet have followed their distinguished contempo- 
raries — Bancroft in 1891 and the gifted Gladstone seven 
years later. 

"Mr. Bancroft's well-appointed Berlin residence on the 
Thiergarten was, said Ranke, the most popular house in 
the German capital, for there all classes of people could 
meet together in friendly intercourse. Statesmen, scholars, 
soldiers, poets, artists and men of science met at his house 
and table. Bismarck and Von Moltke were not infrequent 
guests, and there could be seen the diplomatic circle and 
such men as Dorner, Droyson, Helmholtz, Mommsen and 
Von Ranke. Bancroft often rode on horseback in com- 
pany with the great chancellor, and visited him a^ Varzin, 
where no other member of the diplomatic corps was ever 
received. 'To this day,' said Prof. Ranke in 1883, 'T have 
never ceased to regret the departure from Berlin of my 
friend George Bancroft.' The American, speaking of the 
German historian, said he recalled the description Johnson 
gave of Garrick, 'as the cheerfullest man of his age. ' While 
he prefers to burn the midnight oil, continuing his labors 
until I or 2 in the morning, I have always preferred to work 
by daylight, doing, like Sir Walter Scott, much of my writ- 
ing before breakfast. In summer I was often at my desk 
before 6 o'clock. My afternoons and evenings are devoted 
to exercise, reading and society. For 50 years it has been 
my habit to spend several hours of each day in the open air, 
and to that practice I chiefly attribute the preservation of 
my mental and physical health to nearly four score and ten. 
In answer to your speaker's inquiry, he said: 'No; I do not 
recall any historian except my friend Von Ranke who con- 
tinued to work beyond 89, and but few scholars that have 
reached that age — Sophocles, Fontenelle and Chevreul — 
beins: three instances which occur to me at the moment.' 



i6 TJie Bancroft Memorial. 

"When nearly four score and ten, and after he had aban- 
doned his favorite exercise of riding on horseback, your 
speaker accompanied Mr. Bancroft on an afternoon walk from 
his house in Washington. Arriving in Georgetown, where we 
turned after a half hour's stroll, and thinking the venerable 
man might be weary, his companion remarked that perhaps 
they had better take a passing street car and ride back. To 
this suggestion the still vigorous veteran promptly replied : 
'Are you fatigued, sir?' and so they completed their three 
or more miles' walk. They chanced to meet again that 
evening at a dinner table, when the historian, none the 
worse for his long walk, merrily related how he had tired 
out his young New York friend, who became fatigued and 
wished to ride back. A few days later your speaker was 
one of a small circle who enjoyed listening to Mr. Ban- 
croft's reminiscences of Byron, Bunsen, Humboldt, Macau- 
lay, and many other celebrated men with whom he was ac- 
quainted during the first of the century. 

"The eminent statesman, scholar and historian died in 
his Washington residence Jan. 17, 1891. An oflficial an- 
nouncement of the event was made by the president of the 
United States, and the Senate, on motion of your distin- 
guished fellow citizen. Senator Hoar, adjourned in order 
that its members might attend his funeral. Among the 
many tributes received by Mr. Bancroft's son was the fol- 
lowing telegram from the emperor of Germany, transmitted 
through Count Arco Valley, the German minister to Wash- 
ington, 

" 'Sir : His majesty, the emperor and king, remembering 
the relation of friendship which for many years existed be- 
tween His Majesty the late Emperor William and the late 
Hon. George Bancroft as minister of the United States to 
Berlin, has directed me to express to you, and to your 
family, his most sincere sympathy with the great loss which 
has fallen upon you and your country.' 




MRS. I.UCRETIA (CHANDLER) BANCROFT. 



The Bancroft MefnortaL 17 

"The funeral was held at St. John's Church, and was at- 
tended by the president and Mrs. Harrison, the Cabinet, the 
diplomatic corps^ and chief government officials. The 
floral tributes were numerous and beautiful, one being from 
the president of the United States, and another placed on 
the coffin was the gift of William the Thirds emperor of 
Germany. 

"Von Ranke, before his death, expressed a desire that 
his large and valuable library should be acquired by the 
government. The historian's family and the German lite- 
rary public confidently expected that the Prussian govern- 
ment would purchase the collection. There was delay in 
doing so, and it was ultimately bought by an American 
university. Mr. Bancroft also wished that his collection, 
particularly rich in historical manuscripts, should be pur- 
chased by the Library of Congress. It was ofifered to the 
authorities for $75,000. The same delay usually attending 
government action in such afifairs occurred, and the Ban- 
croft collection, after several years, was sold to the trustees 
of the Lenox Library of New York for a larger sum than 
that for which it had been offered to the nation. The library 
is famous for its rare Americana, including a large collec- 
tion of English, French and German manuscripts, the latter 
numbering several hundred journals, reports, muster rolls, 
and a large mass of correspondence relating to the Hessian 
troops that fought for George the Third in the Revolution- 
ary War. The collection also contains many interesting 
presentation copies from Byron, Dickens and other dis- 
tinguished authors. In one of these, in the handwriting of 
the venerable Theodor Mommsen, may be seen in a volume 
of his 'Romische Geschichte,' hues dated Berlin, 1869. 

"Like his successor in Berlin, Bayard Taylor, Mr. Ban- 
croft spoke German almost without accent, and in his man- 
ner and dress often suggested a German. He frequently 
was seen wearing a Prussian military cap, with the straight 



1 8 The Bancroft Metnortal. 

visor, and always wore such a cap when walking or on 
horseback. He was fond of reading and speaking German, 
and was much attached to the stalwart servant he brought 
back from Berlin, who had been in the Prussian army. By 
his will he left the faithful Hermann a bequest of $365 per 
annum. 

"It is of course to his magnum opus, on which he labored 
more or less during a period o^ half a century, that Ban- 
croft's chief claim to remembrance rests. It is written with 
what Edward Burke describes "as the cold neutrality of an 
impartial judge," and may be consulted in all the principal 
libraries of Europe. This noble work has held, and will 
continue to hold, a high place not only in American litera- 
ture, but in that of the world, as its authority is everywhere 
recognized, and it can be read in many languages. Per- 
haps the highest eulogy ever passed upon the work was by 
that sturdy Englishman, John Bright, who said : The study 
which it gives or offers, and the lessons which it teaches, 
surpass to my mind those that I have derived from, or 
found, in any other book of history.' 

"Since our friend's departure for the voiceless land there 
has been completed in the nation's capital the grandest edi- 
fice ever erected for the conservation of books. In the 
noble Congressional Library may be seen many beautiful 
works of art, and among them a painting by one of the lead- 
ing artists of the land representing history. Two tablets 
are introduced in the picture, on which are inscribed the 
names of fourteen of the most illustrious historians of the 
past 2000 years, on the adamant of whose fame the stream 
of Time beats without injury. In that brilliant beadroll is 
included your townsman, Bancroft. Of him it may be said, 
in the words written of Fitz Greene Halleck by another son 
of New England : — 



The Bancroft Memorial. 1 9 

He sleeps ; he can not die ! 

As evening's long-drawn sigh, 
Lifting the rose leaves on his placid mound, 

Spreads all their sweets around. 
So, laden with his song, the breezes blow 

From where the nestling sedge 
. Frets our rude ocean's edge 
To the smooth sea beyond the peaks of snow. 
His soul the air enshrines, and leaves but dust below ! 



REV. DR. HALE'S ADDRESS. 

When Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale was introduced, 
there was a round of applause. Dr. Hale stood on the me- 
morial- stone, and his imposing form towered above every 
one as his voice rang out so it could be heard even at the 
farthest ends of the crowd. Dr. Hale said : 

"I was reading aloud to my mother one summer after- 
noon in 1834, when my father came into the room, smiling, 
and said to Ijer, 'Here's Mr. Bancroft. The first volume of 
the history is finished and is to be put to press.' With 
him was a tall, black-haired young man, quick and active 
in his movements, and with the same gracious smile which 
I was afterward to know for more than 50 years. My father 
was a printer, and Mr. Bancroft had called to advise with 
him as to the printing of the first volume of his history. His 
preface of that year, dated on the i6th of June — so little did 
he know of what was before him — begins with these words : 
'I have formed the design of writing a history of the 
United States from the discovery of the American continent 
to the present time.' Near the end he says : 'The work 
which I have undertaken will necessarily extend to four, or 
perhaps five, volumes.' 

"As the society knows, he pubUshed twelve volumes be- 
fore his death, and these came down only to the inaugura- 
tion of George Washington as president. 

"In the year 1 839 I became an under teacher in the;Boston 
Latin School, and, prominent in the remarkable class of 
boys who were under my care, were Mr, Bancroft's two 



20 The Bancroft Memorial. 

stepsons, William Davis Bliss and Alexander Bliss. I was 
but little older myself than the elder of these boys. We 
were all good friends in the simplicity of the school-room ; 
and Mr. Bancroft, who was uniformly kind to young men, 
was good enough to receive me into his confidence so far as 
their education went. He permitted me to walk and talk 
with him as a companion. I recall now with gratitude the 
long constitutional walk which he would take after his day's 
work, on the sidewalk around Boston Common. It was on 
such occasions that he talked to me, in some detail, about 
his own habits of literary work. Among other things, he 
said that after he had been delving all day, or perhaps for 
many days, in old documents, pamphlets or manuscripts, he 
would not permit himself to write without carefully reading 
two or three chapters of Gibbon. Beginning with as sim- 
ple and easy companionship as this, his kindness to me 
never failed. 

"I would hardly speak of this, but that I think that it il- 
lustrates his readiness to help forward everybody who con- 
sulted him. And I like to think that he was curiously free 
from a certain amusing jealousy, sometimes provoking, 
when an author thinks that he has a pre-emption to the sub- 
ject which engages him. Mr. Bancroft always seemed to 
me delighted when he found that anybody else had his in- 
terest, either in our national history or in the larger subject 
of the reign of God. 

"Mr. Sparks had seen, at about the same time, the neces- 
sity of examining the archives of the different states for his- 
torical documents ; but his work was confined mostly to the 
generation of the Revolution, while Mr. Bancroft's went as 
far back as the middle of the 15th century. I think he told 
me once that he visited every state capital in his search for 
original authorities. He exhumed from old and forgotten 
reservoirs much detail which his successors chose to regard 
as commonplace. 

"I confess that I am annoyed when I sometimes hear the 



The Bancroft Memorial. 21 

students of what pleases to call itself the 'new school' of his- 
tory, refer with contempt to Bancroft's work, as if he were 
indifferent to accuracy, and as if he disregarded 'contempo- 
rary authorities. ' My young friends must permit me to say 
that as far as the history of the United States is concerned, 
he is the Daniel Boone, he is the great pioneer into wilds of 
original research. I would not attempt to say how much 
he has given to writers since his time who suppose that 
they are entitled to the honors of discoverers. 

"Dropping ofif from the Federal circle in which, in early 
life, he lived, Mr. Bancroft believed literally in a govern- 
ment of the people, for the people, by the people. He was 
not afraid, for instance, of the splendid audacities by which 
Andrew Jackson may be said to have revised the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, or, at all events, changed forever 
the administration of the central government. At the time, 
some of Mr. Bancroft's utterances were ridiculed as what 
was called 'transcendental' and 'unintelligible.' In the 
Fourth of July oration delivered in this town he said that 
"Democracy is the victory of man over his accidents. " Sixty 
years have illustrated this proposition so distinctly that it 
now seems commonplace. It is fair to recur to it by way 
of illustrating the loyalty with which he always expressed 
his confidence in the people — a confidence like that of 
Abraham Lincoln or of Garfield — that if you will give time 
enough and opportunity, the voice of the people may be 
fairly called the voice of God. 

"When critics on the other side of the ocean speak with a 
certain contempt of Mr. Bancroft's work in history, that 
contempt, at bottom, generally means that the critic really 
supposes that government should be delegated to some par- 
ticular high class, and that the people exist simply to obey 
the requisitions of such governors. 

"George Bancroft believed in the supremacy of God in 
heaven, and that you and I are His children, who may be 



22 The Bancroft Memorial. 

inspired by His Holy Spirit to will and to do His pleasure. 
The voice of such people is the voice of God. That is the 
belief of George Bancroft, whose anniversary you cele- 
brate to-day." 

His Honor Mayor Rufus B. Dodge, Jr., who formally ac- 
cepted the memorial for the people of the city of Worcester, 
said : — 

MAYOR DODGE'S ACCEPTANCE. 

"The city of Worcester, whose honor has been dignified 
by the life of Bancroft, with gratification sees this appro- 
priate mark designating the place of his birth, and thanks 
most heartily those whose thoughtful minds have thus fit- 
tingly designated an important historic spot within her bor- 
ders. To achieve a world reputation is a possibility for but 
few, and to achieve it wholly by merit without the aid of 
some great moment of fortune, places the possessor beyond 
even the unspoken thought of criticism. The author of 
fiction may profit by the fads and fancies of human moods, 
but the historian and philosopher write for all times; their 
work is scrutinized in ev^ry part and from every standpoint ; 
is subject to the most searching and exact analysis. It is 
the excellence of genius that can make a Macaulay, a Car- 
lyle or a Bancroft. It meets unchanged all tests, is found 
wanting in no balance. 

"George Bancroft was one of the greatest of great Amer- 
icans, as he was of those Americans who demonstrated to 
the world that this young republic could produce men equal 
to any. His father was a rare man, whose influence, al- 
ways good, gave Worcester benefit at a time when strong 
minds to guide and broad ideas to enlarge were of great mo- 
ment. The influence of Dr. Aaron Bancroft will not be 
forgotten, and in this community his honor is scarcely less 
than that of his illustrious son. 



The Bancroft Memorial. 23 

"Impelled by the inspiring example of such a father, whose 
worth made him universally respected, a constant inspira- 
tion to achievement, the son added a brilliancy to the family 
name which carried it through all civilization. Time will 
bring, as it has already brought, marked changes in this 
vicinity; business activity may destroy the quiet of a spot 
once beautiful in nature, which gave to inherent genius a 
quickened impulse, but this site will remain still memorable 
for his life, as well known and universally interesting after 
generations have come and gone as in -our own. 

"The chief of neighboring hills, now graced by the name 
of Bancroft, whose stolid form greets the clouds, and whose 
crest has glistened with sunshine for limitless time, stood 
sentinel of his youth and greeted his gaze as it now greets 
ours, impressive in its strength. Steadfast and fixed is that 
rugged form, emblematic of the fame our townsman won, 
which shall be as lasting as this hill itself. This tablet will 
tell in the long future where the light first greeted his life, 
but the rays of the sun which here met his gaze find the 
credit of his power in their sweep of the globe. 

"Just pride do we feel that our city was the home of this 
statesman, philosopher and historian, great in things last- 
ing, weak in nothing detracting from manhood, with a char- 
acter irreproachable, and all brilliancy of a career merito- 
rious, bringing distinction to the Commonwealth's heart. 
It is our right to feel proud, it is a privilege to erect this 
material reminder in token of his merits to the momory of 
a man so noted that the place of his birth has an interest for 
all. 

"The city, with thankfulness, accepts this memorial to 
his worth, with full recognition of all it implies, unreserved- 
ly giving to his name that largest honor a people can feel." 

At the conclusion of the mayor's address an opportunity 
was given those present to greet Rear-Admiral Sampson, 
and for fully half an hour men, women, boys and girls filed 



B4 !»07 



24 The Bancroft Memorial. 

past him, each receiving besides a hearty shake of the hand 
a courteous bow and a pleasant smile. 

It was 4.30 o'clock when the reception was over, and the 
rear-admiral entered a carriage and was driven to the 
railway station on his return to Charlestown. 

The souvenir programme that was distributed immediately 
before the opening of the exercises is of very neat design. 
It contains a cut of the tablet and stone, one of George 
Bancroft at the age of 54 years, one of the house in which 
he was born, one of his father and one of his mother. On 
the last page is a list of the societies that united in securing 
the memorial. 



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